


A Dragon's New Journey: Ace's Childhood

by kittyface27



Series: A Dragon's New Journey [2]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Background - Freeform, Child Ace, Childhood, Dragons, Flashback, Gen, Growing Up, One Shot, Past, a dragon's new journey, dragon - Freeform, partnered with another story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:15:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28139784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittyface27/pseuds/kittyface27
Summary: One-shot accompanying chapter 5 of "A Dragon's New Journey", about how Ace ended up a dragon hybrid! It's possible to start with this one first as maybe a prologue, but it's meant to partner with the original story.
Relationships: Dadan & Portgas D. Ace, Monkey D. Garp & Portgas D. Ace, Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace & Sabo
Series: A Dragon's New Journey [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2061483
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	A Dragon's New Journey: Ace's Childhood

**The one-shot accompanying chapter 5 of "A Dragon's New Journey", the story of how Ace ended up a dragon hybrid! Enjoy~**

* * *

**Three years old-**

For the fourth time that week, a three year old Ace waddled out of the bandit's hut, and to the forest beyond. He was noisy and clumsy, but luckily for him, this side of the forest had more benign animals and bugs. And most of them took no interest in him, and hurried away. He was repeating a song he'd managed to make up somehow, having heard the bandits singing one time.

"Apple, apple, appy, apple," was his song, his young and high pitched voice making it cute. The lyrics weren't exactly lyrics, but he was three and enjoyed it. He wandered to a cliff, and his mouth opened in awe at the ocean beyond. He came dangerously close to the edge, but managed not to fall. "Apple! Apple! Appy! Apple!" he sang louder, hearing his voice echo. He laughed hysterically.

"App, app, app!" he chanted, starting to walk along the ledge of the cliff. He picked up a big bug that flew away, and he started crying, big fat tears streaming down his red face. That's when something huge got out of the water. He gasped at it, no longer crying. It was huge! It looked like a big lizard.

Ace thought it was very pretty, his little tantrum over. It had filmy eyes, and Ace didn't notice it looking confused. "Apple?" he asked the creature, having no idea what it was. But then its big hand came up and snatched Ace off of the cliff. He screamed on the way down and managed to hold his breath underwater as he was dragged deeper before he was suddenly in the air again.

He was on a beach of little rocks. He had shoes on, so the sharp ones didn't hurt his little feet. He was crying from the scary experience, even if the walls were pretty with blue lights projecting onto them from the moving water. The big dragon was gone, and he was all alone. He stopped crying when he noticed they were echoing.

Again, he started to sing his apple song. It was so noisy! His voice was shouting back at him! But then the scary creature entered the cave, and a small blue dragon was set on the beach, as gently as Ace had been. "Apple!" he shouted at the creature. This one didn't look too scary. He wanted to be his friend. His first friend!

He waddled closer to it and touched it's shiny neck rock. But he felt a painful shock go from his finger to the rest of him, and started to cry again. The dragon made a weird, concerned noise and pulled Ace out of the cave and gently put him back up onto the cliff, where he cried some more. Then Dogra found him, soaking wet and crying. The dragon was gone, and Ace was brought back to the hut. He cried, but it was no longer "apple". Now it was "monser!" and Dogra tried shushing him, calmly. He seemed upset Ace had wandered away again.

After that time, a messy fence was put around the clearing so he couldn't go back into the dangerous forest. Nobody could ask how Ace got wet, since he didn't know the words to say. He was neglected here, and was slowly learning to speak by himself, with no help. Just able to hear what people said and catch on that way.

So his vocabulary was very limited. He did know the words "scary", "monster", and "help". Those were the three words he used when they tried to ask him how he'd gotten wet. But they soon just gave up and vowed to not let him get out again. Magra would be his full time babysitter. Garp would be furious if he knew about Ace's little adventures into the dangerous forest by himself.

After he fell asleep in the crate that doubled as a crib, he had dreams about the scary monster, and woke up crying. This happened every night for the next week. It was when he was playing outside with a stick and rock that he started screaming about growing a tail and wings. "Help!" he screamed, suddenly not feeling good at all.

Magra came out and was in shock before he picked up the mutated toddler. "Water! Thirsty!" he cried. He just _knew_ he needed water right now. He didn't know how he knew, he just did. Magra put him in the cold bath, where he felt much better, but was still crying. He was saying he was scared before his entire body changed and he was a small lizard-like creature with wings that clearly didn't look like they could be used to fly.

Poor Magra thought he was seeing things, and tried to keep Ace's head above the water, even as he was fine breathing it in and out under the water. He ended up falling asleep, his clothes in tatters. He morphed back, and Magra carried him out. He had to change his diaper which had come off outside.

The bandit was shaking in worry, not knowing what had happened. He tucked Ace into the crib, putting a large metal box full of water beside it. He sat there for a long time, worried about the kid. Dadan might act like he was just an unwanted pest, but the bandits had all gotten attached to him, even as they cared for him poorly. He was fed alright, and bathed, but otherwise, he was neglected and lonely.

After everyone got back from their bandit activity, Magra awkwardly explained the strange situation. Some thought he was lying or joking, but his expression made those people second guess their words.

Dadan looked concerned and confused. "He said there was a monster, right? And he was wet?" Dogra nodded, having been the one to find him. "Maybe something happened from that. I don't think Garp should know." They were all shocked and confused as to why. "The brat's annoying, but I don't want Garp to know. He's a marine, and we know how scummy the marines are. What do you think they'd do about this?"

The room understood the reasoning. They would keep it a secret for as long as possible. They would try and teach Ace to control whatever had happened to him, because after three weeks, it had not stopped and not gone away. Ace acted like nothing was wrong. When nobody was looking, even for a second, Ace would waddle to the tub of water by his crate and lay down face first in it.

It felt nice. He could breathe just fine. But it just felt nice. But it was discouraged. He was allowed to do it once a day, and that was his favorite time. He didn't always turn into a dragon, but he liked the water.

One day, they weren't fast enough to put the shifting boy in the water, and in the dry air, he was injured from the transformation. He was bleeding and screaming until he was set back in the water and healed. He didn't like that feeling, not at all. They found out that he'd be okay if any part of him was in the water. So they attached a little water bag that dripped down him from his back, keeping him at least a little wet all day.

The bandits did all they could to help him in this time where he didn't understand or know what to do about this. They were proud of the fact that nobody treated him as a freak, even if it seemed that way. Luckily, Garp didn't visit when he was three. If he did, Ace would have no doubt changed in front of him, and who knows what would happen then?

So they kept it a secret while Ace couldn't himself.

**Four years old-**

Ace didn't know anything was wrong with him for a long time. He didn't remember anything before. Sometimes he didn't like changing, but it was normal to him now. He was used to it, and enjoyed the big bath tub that was in the yard or house depending where Ace was. If he felt himself changing, he'd run to the bath and jump in.

He was no longer waddling, and knew how to speak better. Not as well as others his age, but his vocabulary was much better and more diverse than it had been when he was three. He knew he was called a "dragon". He was told they were big animals that everybody left alone. They could be scary, but Ace wasn't scary.

Garp was visiting for the first time since before the dragon changed him. He could remember that event clearly, but not anything before. To be honest, that event was the thing he remembered most clearly throughout his short lifespan.

Ace was told not to tell grandpa, said it was important. But he trusted grandpa! He would be okay. Dadan said grandpas are mommy and daddy's daddy. Ace was excited to meet him again. He was Ace's family, so he had to be nicer than the bandits.

But when Garp arrived, he was not what Ace thought he'd be. He was loud, and his loudness startled Ace and he started to cry. Ace found he could hear better, and it was too loud. He covered his hands over his ears and cried. Garp didn't try to comfort him. Instead, he loudly told Ace that strong people don't cry about little things.

It wasn't little to Ace, though. The sounds were too loud. He ran outside so it wasn't so loud. He went to his toy stash of rocks, sticks and leaves that were fun to crunch and jump on. But he was soon pulled away by the big man. Ace squirmed, not liking him.

"Don't worry, Ace. I'll make you big and strong so you won't cry again. You'll be a good marine!" Ace remembered that marines were bad and that's why he couldn't tell Garp.

Ace said, "Marines are bad!" repeating what he'd heard and been told. Garp snapped that he wouldn't think that way anymore once he started being trained. Ace didn't know what trained was. Other than being trained to not turn into a dragon.

Garp's training sounded bad, and he didn't want to do it. The training was him fighting small monkeys. Instead of allowing Ace to figure out what they were, say hi to them, he was told to fight. Then the monkeys attacked him, hitting and scratching him. "Fight back, Ace!"

Ace kept screaming that it hurt and he didn't want to do it. When he tried to run away, Garp pulled him back. "Ow!" Ace cried. He finally tired pushing them away, but they got angry and tackled him down. Garp told him to fight back, but Ace didn't. And when he didn't, Garp looked very disappointed.

That look was the first thing that offended Ace, a feeling he'd never felt before. He shouldn't be looked at like that, it was a mean look and Ace didn't like it. After the visit, Magra disinfected and cleaned up the scratches.

Ace would never tell Garp the truth. He was mean and scary! He didn't want to see him again and was glad when he left.

**Five years old-**

Ace was informed of his father when he turned five. He wasn't happy. His dad was a bad criminal? He didn't really understand why it was bad, since the bandits were criminals, too, and they were nicer to him. Not as nice as they were when he was four, but Ace felt they cared for him in their own way.

He was perfectly fine about his transformations, able to do them whenever he wanted and not change when he was emotional or on accident. He didn't hate himself until he ventured into the city on his own, having just explored some of the forest. A lot of the animals left him alone. He was only attacked by some angry birds that he ran away from. He had then stumbled across a big area of gray things, smelly trash. There were people there, but Ace wanted to go into town and see the colorful parts. Nobody bothered him, didn't look at him twice. He was clearly not carrying any money on him, and he stayed out of peoples' ways. So nobody bothered him.

He entered the city and wandered around a bit, seeing people with shiny sticks, looking like the things Magra cooked with. Knives. Dangerous people, so he hurried further inside. When he got to the colorful part of town, people looked at him in a rude manner. His clothes were dirty and he was covered in dirt in some places.

The way he was looked at sent him flying off the handle, shouting at people to not look at him that way. It infuriated him, being looked at like that. It shocked some, and they hurried away. When he started screaming at another little kid for staring at him, he was politely "escorted" out of high town and into the scary places.

With no way back into the colorful place, he looked around the area, grumpy and looking sour. He got _so angry._ Why did they look at him that way? So disrespectful. He was still angry about it 20 minutes later. So when he walked into a rowdy bar, he was already in a bad mood. There were drunk people all around him, and nobody kicked him out of the bar.

When he heard somebody insulting pirates, he looked up. His father was a pirate. One very hated. Maybe they knew something about him. But Ace wasn't supposed to tell anybody about his parents. Well, not his dad.

"Hey!" he shouted, patting somebody on the leg until they looked down at him.

"What's with the brat?" he asked, making Ace angrier than he already was. He glared at him. "Oh, tough little runt, huh? What'd ya want?" He was very intoxicated and smelled bad. Worse than the bandits when they got drunk, too.

"You don't like pirates? What about the pirate king?" he demanded, managing to not demand for them to not be rude. Show him _respect._ He was better than them, they can't look at him that way.

"Pirates are the scum! Gold Roger ruined the world! It's lucky he's dead, hahaha! Listen here: pirates are scum! Especially the pirate king," he said, slurring his speech. The others at the table agreed, laughing about how pathetic they were. Ace demanded to know what they thought of his son. If he had a kid. "He should drop dead!"

Ace snarled, never having made that sound before. He ran out and found a pipe. It was sturdy. He went back into the bar and attacked the man that laughed at him. It wasn't pretty, and Ace ran away with his new weapon in his hand.

He continued to try and find somebody who thought Roger's kid shouldn't die, should live. When he asked Garp, if he deserved to live, during one of the only non-violent visits, he couldn't tell him one way or another. Of course he didn't deserve to live. He was a monster. From what he'd seen, there was nobody like him.

He was alone.

The pipe he'd snatched in a moment of desperation was his new weapon. He carried it around everywhere. He was going back into Gray Terminal to ask _them._ See if any of them thought differently than those at the bar. Nobody did, so Ace clobbered them. He was of course injured as well, but he healed very quickly.

He was bruised and bloody one day when he heard and smelled somebody else. His senses were getting more sensitive. Loud noises didn't make him cry anymore. He didn't cry in general. Crying was accompanied with disrespect and ridicule. So he never cried, doing everything he could to not cry now.

Well, he did cry by himself sometimes, but nobody knew about that. Nobody knew that feeling alone and wrong would draw tears in private times. He was skilled at being silent with them, able to turn his sadness into anger. He took out his anger on the animals in the forest.

"Who're you?!" he demanded, seeing a little boy in the tree, looking his age. Dirty as well, but dressed more fancy. The blonde boy dropped down. He held a pipe, too. "You here for a fight?" he demanded. "Who are you?" he demanded again. He barely gave the kid any time to respond.

"I'm Sabo! You're so strong!" Ace was filled with something strange. Nobody ever complimented him before. He didn't understand the feeling, but the praise felt _nice_. A lot better than when people insulted him and he was filled with fury and anger. He didn't know how to respond other than to glare. "What's your name?"

"...Ace," the boy responded in a clipped voice.

Sabo grinned, and reached out his hand. Ace looked at it skeptically, so the boy took it down, not making any show he cared about Ace not returning touching his hand. "Wanna go hunting with me?" Ace didn't know what to say, but he nodded.

They both went hunting, and Ace learned that Sabo was strong too. Nothing like the kids in town.

**Six years old-**

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Sabo asked, climbing down the cliff face after Ace. He sounded worried, but Ace would save him if he fell in the water.

"I gotta see. Dogra told me he found me over here after the incident," Ace called back up, then dropping into the water. He shifted into his black dragon form. He was the size of the bathtub barrel in the bathroom at the bandit's hut. "It's okay! Come down!"

Sabo called that they weren't toddlers, the dragon might think they were a threat. "It can't be pissy with me when it's their fault I ended up like this!" Ace called from the water. "Just jump!" Sabo closed his eyes and dropped into the cold water. Ace dived deeper, finding the cave entrance. He was a bit afraid to go in alone. He'd never met another dragon.

And his best friend had told him that there were no records he knew of of anybody like him. Nothing. Ace was alone in this. The two both wanted to become pirates and set off to find somebody like him. There had to be _somebody_ like him. They were going to set off together, and had even started their own pirate fund.

He took Sabo's hand and told him to take a deep breath. Sabo took a huge breath and Ace swam deeper with him quickly until they made it into the cave, up in the air. Ace remembered this place clearly. What they found was there was no dragon, but there were shells of big eggs.

There had definitely been a dragon here, Ace hadn't had a faulty memory. But it was long gone. The eggs were brittle and dry. Sabo said they'd been there a long time. Ace slammed his fist into the wall. His friend hurried over. "We'll find somebody like you, someday."

Ace took a deep breath and then sat down. He just wanted to know he wasn't alone. He had Sabo, who stuck with him even after Ace showed him. He wasn't alone that way, but otherwise, he was the only of his kind. He was afraid he'd neve find anybody like himself. If he truly was all alone.

"We'll find somebody, Ace. Don't lose hope. The dragon isn't here anymore. It can't help you. I will, though. We can help you learn to swim better, and grow stronger by hunting animals." Ace nodded, and looked down at his hands before fisting them. He'd be strong enough that he'd sail all of the sea to look for the existence of another partial dragon.

He would also grow strong enough to surpass his burdensome father's stupid legacy. He would be better and stronger than him. "Let's go back," Ace mumbled. Sabo nodded, and he swam his friend out of the underwater cave and back up to the surface. They climbed back up the cliff easily.

**Seven years old-**

Ace was crying, embarrassingly, over the brutal beating he'd just gotten. Sabo was sniffling too. They were both covered in bruises and swollen injuries. Garp had come, meeting Sabo for the first time. When he'd called Ace weak, Ace had been unable to handle it. His pride was getting worse and worse. He felt disrespected from the simplest things and turned violent.

So, when Garp insulted him, he attacked Garp, punching him and biting, growling like an animal. Garp had thrown him away, and beat him and then Sabo who tried to interfere. Now both of them were nursing wounds and prides. Garp had left. Left Ace and Sabo embarrassed and humiliated.

Ace hated Garp, hated him with a passion. So, he'd surpass that old fart, too. He'd become a strong pirate and fight against his stupid marines. It's not like he'd be welcomed anyways. He was part dragon as well as Roger's son. Nobody could know about that, so why would he ever join the marines?

Fuck Garp. Fuck anybody who disrespected him.

**Eight years old-**

Ace just killed someone. He was hiding in a tree trunk, afraid of Sabo's reaction. He'd gotten so angry because he flipped Ace off. He didn't mean to kill him. But his pipe hit his head and now he was dead. Ace had run from the scene, but nothing happened. Nobody cared about the people in Gray Terminal.

Sabo found him and walked into the large and hollowed out tree trunk. He was quiet for a bit. "Are you okay?" he asked. There was a long pause. Ace often took long pauses before replying to things.

"I killed somebody, Sabo," Ace said quietly. Sabo said he knew that. "I didn't mean to. It was an accident." That was the truth, it wasn't on purpose. He wished he hadn't. And nobody would miss him. Ace would forget his face, soon. The feeling of guilt would fade. Every strong emotion he felt was eclipsed by his terrible pride.

He couldn't stop it, he couldn't not get angry with every trance of disrespect. From everybody but Sabo and the bandits. Everyone else could go fuck themselves after Ace beat the shit out of them. No matter how much he punished anybody who treated him badly, nobody changed or got the hint.

"I know it was an accident. I don't know if it was wrong. That guy probably killed a lot of people, too. I've seen him do it. I mean, that doesn't make killing him excusable or anything." Ace sighed. "I'll help you with your pride, okay?"

Ace nodded, but it was to no avail. His pride would not deflate.

**Nine years old-**

Ace ran to the treasure tree after nabbing a pouch of gold for their pirate fund. He bashed him in the head, most likely to die. Ace had killed many times since the original. Not always because of his pride. Frequenting Gray Terminal exposed that it had a lot of bad people. So a lot of them died. Kill or be killed.

He found Sabo at the tree, and compared their stashes. Ace lost. He grumbled about it, but when Sabo told him he always got the bigger loots, Ace reacted to the praise like usual. A swell of warmth and pride in his chest. Sabo knew that's what he felt like so he was nice about that sometimes.

Then Sabo pulled out a book he stole from the library in high town. Ace gasped and asked how he'd managed to get that. "Hehe, that's my secret. I won't tell you," he said, though Ace could hear the sound of discomfort in Sabo's voice. He backed off.

It was a book about dragons. A realistic one. Nobody knew much about water dragons since they were never caught or seen in person. Besides those who had seen Ace. They looked at the other types of dragons. Land and sky ones. They found that all of them had pride problems. That's why most smart people bowed to them.

That's when Ace started to want people to bow to him to show respect. And he also grew frustrated that, even though he was part dragon, he was never shown the respect his other half deserved. He was bigger than the girth of one of the big trees. Sabo had measured him. 13 feet across and 30 feet long.

They had made a little raft and Ace pulled it along like a horse. He wasn't offended by doing this, didn't feel like he was being used. Sabo showed him more respect than anybody else. And he never made it seem like he was faking it. Besides, he was already Ace's pack. He didn't need to bow anymore.

That's what he thought when he read about dragons having a sort of hierarchy of family and mates. Ace named his first tier as a pack, and Sabo was the only one there. The bandits were in the friends tier, with Garp in the lowest tier. The tier for people he'd met but was not fond of. Even below acquaintance status.

He still didn't know, and wouldn't know. He still had never been told anything like "I love you" or "you deserve to live". Never once did he feel any love from him. He was sure grandparents should do that. But maybe he was wrong. Sabo never liked talking about his old life, and Ace never pressed.

Sabo knew everything about him, but Ace actually knew little about where Sabo lived before or if he'd always lived in Gray Terminal . He didn't push, not wanting to make Sabo uncomfortable. He was Ace's lifeline. He was terrified of him leaving him all alone. Completely alone, not just alone in the world.

So, learning more about dragons was a relief. That he wasn't just an asshole for being an asshole. He had to work on that, but it was nice to know it was "normal". As normal as it could be for somebody like Ace.

**Ten years old-**

Luffy was the most annoying thing in the world and Ace had trouble not bashing his head in. Not that he would die from that, he was made of rubber.

**Eleven years old-**

"I'm part of the pack now, too?!" Luffy asked excitedly. Ace grumbled an embarrassing "yes". Luffy had learned about Ace turning into a dragon by accident. But he stayed, and he didn't tell anybody about it. So far, and he knew he'd be dead if he told another soul.

Luffy had made Ace drastically change his opinion of him when he found out and said, "I wanna be a pirate, and then we can try to find other Aces! And then they'd be friends, too!" So, from that moment on, annoying Luffy because their little brother. Pack was easier to be understood in terms of brothers. Family.

They were a pack and also brothers. So, the three now planned to set out together to search the world for another Ace. Being free pirates was great on its own, but to fulfil Ace's dearest wish made him feel so warm and loved, something he had never felt he'd been given yet.

Luffy made Ace happy. He was annoying a lot of the time, but Ace loved him. He loved Sabo, too. Dearly, they were all he had in the world. And it was the same for Sabo. They all got strong together, even if they got in arguments sometimes. Especially when Luffy learned about Roger and didn't understand why Ace felt the way he did.

But Luffy was stupid. So he didn't understand why Ace felt that way. He may have beat him up too much, but he always bounced back and never held grudges. Ace was truly happy. It might be hard for him to show it sometimes, but he was happy with his loving pack. They were all going to pursue Ace's dream that became all of their dreams.

He hoped Luffy would stay this way. But having more who knew about and loved him would be wonderful. Not in the pack tier, but in friends. Pirate life was coming in six years. He could barely wait! So, they had to be strong enough. Ace had grown incredibly large. He scared the lord of the coast, which was satisfying.

Life was nice.

**Twelve years old-**

Why? Why did he set out without them? Without Ace? After all that time, he left without him. And Sabo was dead now. They never recovered his body. Ace couldn't find it. He didn't want to believe it, but he was missing. When Ace raided high town to find him, prove Dogra wrong, he was disappointed.

Sabo really was gone. Ace felt absolutely devastated and betrayed. Luffy sobbed openly. Ace knew he loved Sabo, too, but he had been with the middle brother since he was five. And he didn't trust Ace enough to get them away. He should have _known!_ Did Sabo ever trust or love him like he thought he did?

He cried by himself in the ocean, unable to show anybody those raw emotions. Not even Luffy. Luffy was all he had left, now. He felt bad, but he would overwhelmingly rather have Sabo. He loved Luffy, but Sabo was the first. He was irreplaceable.

Ace's heart broke into pieces after that. After feeling all of the trust Sabo had given him was misplaced and untrue. He didn't want those feelings to taint the memory of his beloved brother, but they were always there, in the back of his mind. It was his and Sabo's dream first to find others like him.

He couldn't only set out with Luffy. They would go separately. It just wouldn't be the same without Sabo, and Ace didn't want to even try when he knew the outcome.

**Thirteen years old-**

Ace's pride got Luffy attacked by a bear. His younger brother had called him weak as a joke. So Ace didn't help him when he asked. He was almost killed by a bear. It was as he was crying over his failure as a big brother that he really realized… Luffy was all he had left. He would be a better brother from now on.

Appreciating the only person in the world left to love him.

**Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen years old -**

Luffy was his light. It was different from Sabo. Luffy wasn't deep to talk with. He didn't feel he could share his insecurities with him. He knew he wouldn't make fun of Ace, but he just wouldn't be good to talk to. He was too dumb and clueless. But Ace loved him.

"Ace! Watch this!" Luffy shouted. Ace encouraged him, standing at the tree line and watching over him as he practiced with his seemingly useless devil fruit. "Gun, gum rocket!" he shouted, and old move that he was perfecting. But then, one of his hands left the post at the wrong time, and he went flying over the cliff and into the water.

Ace shouted and didn't hesitate and jumped in after him. He didn't need to change into dragon form to save him. "Idiot!" Ace scolded, freaking out. What if he hadn't gotten to him? What if it had been like Sabo?

"You're so cool," Luffy said lethargically.

"Yeah, yeah," Ace grumbled, not happy with that. Maybe they should build a fence around the cliff?

"I'll save you too, some day," Luffy mumbled.

Ace smiled. "That's my job. I'm the big brother, you're the little one. I'll be the one doing the saving. You better not get hurt after I leave or I'll be really mad," he said, voice light but the words sincere.

"Shishishi! How could I leave Ace when I'm his only family? Nobody loves him more than me!" Ace's tears mixed with the water he was still swimming through. Luffy was the only person to ever say that to him. It made happiness bloom in his chest.

"I love you, too, Lu. Even if you're a handful little brother. Don't worry me so much!" Luffy just laughed again.

**Seventeen years old -**

Ace waved goodbye to his brother and the bandits. The bandits were crying, but Luffy was smiling. "Find one, Ace! I know you can!" Luffy called. The others didn't know what he meant, but Ace did.

"I'll find one! And I'll send you a letter about it! Don't fall in the ocean anymore, okay?" He was worried to leave Luffy. He shouted a promise that he wouldn't die, he'd grow stronger than anybody. "Oh? You can be stronger than a dragon?"

"Damn right!" Ace laughed and wished him luck. He would miss him, but it was time for a new chapter in his life. He'd gather a crew, only people he knew he could trust completely, and they'd set out to explore the world and look for somebody like him. There had to be somebody else, and he'd search everywhere! The most dragons lived in the grand line, so that was his intended destination. Once the island grew small, Ace jumped out of his fishing boat and bit down on the rope tied to the front, and dragged his first little home out on the wide sea. He'd make a name for himself, without exposing himself.

The new chapter began. He was stepping out into the big outside world, and he wouldn't let it, or anybody, defeat him. He carried Sabo in his heart, no longer bitter about him leaving. And Luffy's wish would stay with him, too.

He wouldn't disappoint.


End file.
